Blogging from Home and the Reappearance of Stuff

Got the Internet (wireless included) all set up at my new house. Woohoo!! I also emptied out my storage unit with help from a couple of friends. So with all that commotion over with, I'm breathing a little easier. This place feels more like a home.

I started unpacking a bit, putting things here and there, and it's just funny. Old clothes I haven't seen in a year. Dishes, glasses, and flatware I haven't washed in a year. A bed I haven't slept in in a year. A sofa I haven't sat on in a year. Books I haven't read in a year. Photos I haven't looked at in a year. Music I haven't listened to in a year. Movies I haven't watched in a year. Shelves I haven't set up in a year. But none of it seems alien or foreign. It's just like, "Oh yeah, I remember that. I forgot it ever existed." But now it's back. And it feels comfortable and familiar, which means it feels strange.

What I mean is, I thought I'd feel stranger about seeing all this old stuff. But nope. It feels like I just blinked and it reappeared in my life. I have to force myself to remember why it reappeared -- because it was put away, because I lived in China for a year. For some reason that doesn't make sense to me :-) Luckily I have this blog to prove that it happened ;-)

With respect to clothes though, I don't know what I'm going to do! I have been existing with what I currently have for a year ... but now all of a sudden, an extra massive duffel bag of old stuff has reappeared. I doubt that I really need everything in there. And a lot of it I can see is a holdover from when I was losing weight. So it might be time for some more trips to Goodwill! There's other stuff I might not want, like this futon. I might get on Craigslist and see if I can swap it for a TV stand, haha.

Now I can't wait to begin unpacking my China stuff, and doing things like framing my posters, printing out my best photographs and framing those, etc.

I got a new car yesterday. Well, it's "new to me". It's a 2008 Nissan Altima. It's perfect for me. It doesn't have a key! It has a little pod thingie that you keep in your pocket. To start the car, the pod must be in proximity to a sensor on the dash, and you just push a button. FUTURISTIC. When does the hovering start?

I made sure the car I bought had an aux line-in input. I've sworn off CDs -- seems like a waste of materials, not to mention time and money, to burn CDs of my entire music collection. Having the iPod around is way too convenient.

After I get more settled in, I am going to get custom license plates that say "GAORUIAN" -- my Chinese name -- unless somebody already has it, which I highly doubt ;-) Too bad they can't put Chinese characters on license plates, haha. Pics soon :-)

I've also been looking for a place to live. I looked at a small house (to rent) in Hyde Park today -- but it's not me. Too ... well, too run-down I guess. (In Austin, the code word for that is "funky", especially if the place is in a trendy neighborhood like HP.) I need a bit nicer abode. I've been looking online, and I'll probably get a locator to help me soon. According to my barber today, rent's gone up around town, as the recession hasn't affected prices in Austin too much. People keep moving here!!

I also got a TV. Actually I bid on it on eBay before I left Shanghai. I emailed the seller and was like "You don't have to ship it to China; I'm returning to the US soon." He responded with "Wow you're in China!! That's awesome!! I hope you win!!" and I did :-) So I'm going to pick it up today. Speaking of talking about China with random people, I have already begun. I've talked with, let's see, the woman who gave me the rental car, the woman to whom I returned it, the woman at the desk of my hotel, the woman whose house I looked at today, and the woman who cut my hair today. I talked to all of them about China, and I taught the rental car woman how to say 谢谢, but I'm sure she'll forget soon :-) Of course I also talked about it with Kevin and Shawna and Toby, whom I saw yesterday, endlessly. That'll be par for the course for the next, oh, six months to a year. I remember when I first moved here I kept vocally comparing Austin to Richmond. Now that the comparisons are even more extreme, I'm sure I will talk more about them!

Speaking of China, again, it doesn't feel like the whole year happened. I think that's just because I just got back here yesterday. The change will hit me in a couple of weeks, I think. I am so happy I took all those pictures, though. Downtown today, I mumbled a bit of Chinese to myself in order to remind myself that I did in fact live there. And I took some pictures during my last few days there that I have yet to upload, but I'll probably do that soon (if I can find my camera's USB cable among my possessions at the moment).

I keep wanting to talk to staff/employees (waiters, people at the cash register, etc.) in Chinese. Haha. And when Kevin and I went to dinner last night, the waiter checked up on us like three times. It was so weird! They don't do that in China. You have to flag them down to even order food. And they never come back to see how your meal tastes.

Austin feels peaceful, just like I left it. No tall buildings. Lots of character. Nice people. Good food. Great weather (although it's in the 40s now). It's missing the humming buzz of activity in Shanghai and China. Right now though, that's a good thing.

So when I'm awake now, my friends and family also are awake. That's weird because I'm used to checking my email first thing in the morning and receiving a batch of updates on, you know, what happened while I was asleep. It'll be strange to let events in the US unfold throughout the day, rather than reading about them all at once.

I watched Law & Order on TV yesterday morning and it was comforting. And I drove around Mopac and West Austin today, just soaking things in. Ate lunch at Austin Java. Tonight I'm planning on meeting up with the Austin Hokies to watch VT basketball. It should be a good way to socialize and ease through the jet lag.

HOME

After abour 24 hours of travelling, I'm home. As we were descending into Austin, I had to keep reminding myself that we were NOT descending into Shanghai.

I had no idea there were so many white people in this world. And they all speak English??! How strange!!

In LA, I helped an old lady across the street.

I still remember Austin's street layout pretty well. Enough to get me to my hotel without needing a map. On the 30-minute drive from the airport to the hotel, I was inspired to take several pictures -- unfortunately, being as I was driving at the time, it didn't go any further than inspiration.

Oh well. That can wait. I have all the time in the world, now :-)

So Long, and Thanks for All the Baozi

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who's made this all possible: Mavis, Tiny Joe, Smitty, Rufus, Adelaide, Mr. Tibbets, Miss Wanda, Shaniqua, and of course, Bob. We had a great year, didn't we? Laughed a little, cried a little, got freaked out when crotchety old Mr. Dinkis shut down production and locked up all of our set pieces. But by golly, we held bake sale after bake sale to raise the $50,000 needed to keep us on the air. And when that wasn't enough, at the last second, we discovered that old Seamus, quiet old scruffy loveable Seamus who hadn't spoken to anyone in years, was Mr. Dinkis's son and heir to the entire CompuCo fortune.

* * *

Okay, sorry, had to get that out of my system :-) Ah geez man, I don't think there's anything I could say that would do justice to the incredible time I've had in 2008. I could list all the experiences I've had, or all the people I've met, or all the things I will miss -- but none of that would come close to reality. I really could talk for hours, days even, and not get close to the point. But I can try.

I'll miss chopsticks, eating family style, inexpensive food, my Chinese co-workers and friends, my maid, not having a car, not hearing about Iraq every damn day, learning to speak (and even read a bit of) Chinese, surprising people by speaking Chinese with them, eating real Chinese food, night markets, insane amounts of neon-lit modern architecture everywhere, eating things that I have no clue what the hell they are and finding out they're delicious, the terrible terrible 10:30 nightly movies on ICS, catching people stealing glances at me in public places, smiling at small Chinese children when they stare at me, being asked to have my picture taken on the street, feeling different and special when I look around me, the unique aspects of traveling in a foreign country, the seemingly-exotic locations this country offers, doing things just to say I've done them, teaching people English and American culture, seeing myself from the outside-in, and so much more.

I've learned a lot about myself and how I handle adversity, how I adapt to different situations, how people see me, and I see other people, what I like, what I don't like, how I like my life to be, what happens when that apple cart gets upset, and so on. I've had the chance to critically think about things I took for granted for so long, like the English language (why does "I'm working out of Boston" mean the exact opposite of "I'm working outside of Boston"?) and so many facets of American culture. I've experienced an election from outside the country, and the Olympics from within a foreign country. I've seen what these things mean to people not only of the home country, but in foreign countries as well.

With all that said: I am really looking forward to going home for a lot of reasons. Austin is an amazing city -- at least it was when I left, I hope it's still amazing ;-) But the primary reason I'm looking forward to going home is that, while I did not come to Shanghai feeling like this was going to be a "temporary life", it has come to feel like one during the past several months. Ever since going home in January was set in stone, I felt I've put my "real" life on hold because, well, I guess it's just tough for me to invest time in something that I know is ending on a specific date. The same thing .happened when I left Austin for Shanghai, Richmond for Austin, and even Blacksburg for Richmond. I guess I am just practical. But in the last ten years, I have moved addresses in eight of them: 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2008, and 2009, with the big moves coming in 1999 (Columbia to Blacksburg), 2003 (Blacksburg to Richmond), 2004 (Richmond to Austin), 2008 (Austin to Shanghai), and 2009 (Shanghai to Austin). The rest were in-city moves, but still, I am tired of packing up my life every eight to ten months. So while I feel incredibly lucky to have had this experience, I'm very much looking forward to, well, not moving from place to place for a little while ;-)

I mean, of course, who knows whether I will stay in Austin? Who knows how long anyone will stay anywhere? But I am not looking to leave the ATX (as it is known to us cool kids) anytime soon. I have no plans to do so. I remember having fond feelings for the city and, as some Shanghai friends and co-workers can attest, I've been babbling on about it for some time now ;-) We'll of course see how I feel after I've been back for a bit. I'm not expecting life to be the same as it was in Shanghai or even how it was right before I left. But I'm really looking forward to just ... settling in and not having to think about moving anywhere unless I really, really want to.

I'm not complaining about having to move to and from China, of course. The experiences here have been far far far far more than worth it, even above and beyond what I had expected. When I signed up for this endeavor, I knew it would mean at least one more year (well, I thought it was 6 months at the time) of semipermanent residency, and I knew how I would feel (or come to feel) about that. I was initially unprepared to deal with it, thinking that a two-year minimum would be more palatable (so I could settle more into living here). But as I thought more about it, the opportunity I was being offered far outweighed the transient status I would yet again have to live with. So I came, and I don't regret it one bit.

Sheesh.

Thank you all for coming along on this ride and reading this blog. Thanks for commenting and all the compliments. Thanks for showing interest, even if you never made a comment. Thanks for looking at my pictures on flickr. Thanks for talking to me, via phone and Skype and email and instant message and the occasional visit, either for yourself or as a proxy for someone who doesn't even know me. Thanks for being there waiting for me when I get back. Thanks for helping me process my thoughts about 2008.

I really really enjoyed writing this blog. My mind works best when in a conversation, and often when there's nobody around, writing this blog feels like having a conversation with myself, but because I can reasonably assume that people will read what I have to say, I don't feel like I'm talking to myself. It's great. I come up with ideas and free up space in the ol' noggin to boot.

The main purpose of this blog was to share my thoughts about a foreign country and culture with multiple people all at once, so when I returned and people were like "How was China?" I wouldn't get all tongue tied thinking of an answer. I could just say "Go read the blog!" Ha. (I mean, how can you really answer a question like that? I think it's impossible unless you take 5 hours to explain the answer. After working as a technical writer for 4+ years, I have lost the ability to answer generic questions in a meaningful way.)

I also started this blog so I wouldn't get to the end of this trip and feel like I hadn't done anything. There's no way everyone can remember everything that happens in a year, even when it stands out in vivid color because you're living in a foreign country. So 180+ blog posts, almost 3,000 pictures, and several videos later, I think it's safe to say I don't feel that way, so mission accomplished on that part!

In a way the blog (and photostream on flickr) morphed into its own thing. I grew to actively want to share China's experiences and places with you all (instead of just, say, capturing them for my own records). I would go places, have one experience or another, and immediately think about the wording I was going to use to capture it on my blog. Or I'd take a picture of something because it showcased some part of China, or just some interesting thing, I thought you all would want to see.

Several people have asked me what will become of this blog after I return to the US. It's very flattering to hear people so interested :-) I do imagine it will continue. After all, I have to re-integrate into American life again. I'm sure I will have some adventures along that road that are worth documenting here. Not to mention there's a lot of stuff I couldn't post here for one reason or another, like my thoughts on issue X or the time I had an in-depth discussion with my co-worker about issue Y. (These letter-based issues are all the rage over here.) So maybe I will talk a little about that after I return.

The bottom line is, if I feel something is worth writing about, I'll write it here (or somewhere else accessible - I've been thinking about combining all my blogs/web sites into one). Who knows what that'll be or when that'll be, but keep an eye out here if you're interested in what might come, and we'll see what happens.

One thing's for sure though: I'll keep posting photos of, well, whatever, at my flickr page. So keep that bookmarked.

In summation: so long Shanghai and so long 2008. It's been a blast. I'll see you again soon. For the time being though, I look forward to returning to Austin!

Thanks!!

2008 has been, beyond all measures, the most eventful year of my life. So what am I thankful for?

• Seeing lots of incredible places in China, including (but not limited to) the Great Wall and Mt. Everest
  
• Experiencing not only a different culture, but that culture's take on my culture
  
• Experiencing everyday/non-tourist life here -- waking up, getting to work, paying bills, eating dinner, buying clothes, going grocery shopping, walking in the rain, learning the layout of the city, etc.
• Learning a bit of Chinese
• Phreaktion and Void
• 2 kuai zhu rou baozi on the street
• The chance to do something completely different at work
• Staying in touch with friends & family back home
• Sichuan food
• Fried bees, fried scorpions, yak's eyeballs, rabbit, pigeon, duck's blood, spicy duck neck, etc.
• Baseball (the O's notwithstanding)
• The Shelter, Garden Books, LoGo, Thumb Plaza, Taikang Lu, Moganshan Lu, Fuzhou Lu, People's Square, Bonbon, Zhongshan Park, and all the other places in Shanghai that help keep me sane
• Same goes for Big Bamboo in Jing'an
• All the restaurants and their yummy food
• Liang Jian
  
• My Sony DSC H50 and flickr
• My Lenovo T61, wireless router, and Google (Blogger, Gmail, GCal, and most importantly, Reader)
• Facebook, last.fm, and Friendfeed
• My iPod Classic, decent headphones, and iTunes
• HandBrake
• My China co-workers and friends and all the help they've been in making sense of this crazy city
• All the cabbies, barbers, retail workers, watch/bag/DVD salesmen, and others who've complimented my Chinese in one way or another
• Wii!
• The Shanghai transportation system -- seriously, it's really really nice
  
• Books and movies
• Music! Oh wait, I already said iTunes.
• Xiao Xu
  
• My immune system -- it's help up amazingly well over here
• My fleece jacket and scarf (it's cold over here now ...)

There's a lot more that I can't think of at the moment, but this is a pretty good list, I think.

So kids: what are you thankful for?

The Ride is Almost Over

What began over a year ago is down to seven weekends. I've planned mini-trips for two of them. One is my birthday weekend (yay!), and one more I'll have a going-away dinner at my place. (On the advice from a friend, it'll be a Chinglish party ...)

Seven weekends. Really?

Yup. Unlike the last time I faced expulsion from China, I'm ready to leave now. (I've really  got to stop wanting to add "... and continuing my life" on the end there, as if this trip in Shanghai was somehow an interruption, a blip, in my life.) I'm pretty excited about going back to Austin. Just now I happened upon the flickr group for said city, and I had to stop myself from looking at it, because I would just get overcome with homesickness at a time when that's already increasing.

Don't think I dislike Shanghai or China -- far far FAR from it. If I knew I was staying another year or two, I would be thrilled. But since I've known for six months now that I'd be coming back in January, the excitement and anxiousness over returning has grown. It's just that, you know -- the US and Austin feels like HOME. (At least it does from over here.) And you can't replace that feeling, no matter how hard you try.

At the same time, I'm really sad about leaving. To say this experience has been amazing would be a understatement of the grossest proportions. To say I've learned new things about myself and others would not even be a fraction of the story. To say ... well, honestly, there's just no way to put it into words. There just isn't. Even if you have read all my blog posts and looked at all my pictures and talked to me on the phone billions of times ... and even if you've visited me ... there's just no way to transmit that experience. I could try, but I could never get it perfectly, and that would be frustrating, so I won't even try. Actually I'm worried about this feeling affecting me when I return. 

I hope I don't sound too elitist here. Each person's life is like this, I suppose -- unable to be perfectly conveyed to others. Chalk that up among the lessons I've learned here ;-)

Ah, I get very meta and grandiose at times like these, so I'm sure that before I leave I'll post one long super rambling post of that nature. But now's not the time :-)

Onto more mundane matters: I got home Saturday night (ok, really, Sunday morning) and realized I'd lost my ATM card!! This was a little disturbing, as it's not like I can go to the bank and withdraw money without it. (I am dependent on CCB ATMs.) But I was pretty sure that I'd left it in the ATM earlier that night when I went to withdraw funds for the night's activities. The bank was closed Sunday, but I called their help line and spoke to a nice woman who said she would alert the bank branch about it. She suggested I alert my own bank for safety reasons -- but I didn't, because I'm lazy and because I was pretty sure that my card was tucked safely inside the ATM. (Unless some unscrupulous ATM tech happened upon it, I suppose.) Probably not the smartest decision (or lack-of-decision) I've ever made, and to be fair, I did check my online balance numerous times to make sure no one had withdrawn my life savings out from under me. But, as I mentioned before, I'm lazy and didn't want to cancel a card that has funds automatically withdrawn from it (for bill-paying purposes) and have to deal with the hassle of asking my bank to, like, overnight me a new card because otherwise I'd have to eat at KFC 3 times a day because they take my Sodexho card that has buttloads of money on it and borrow money from the other Americans here and feel like a doofus. 

Yeah.

So this morning I waltzed in the bank at 9 AM and walked over to the nearest person I saw. She was busy with someone else and told me to wait for a moment while she went in the back room to talk to someone about something else. When she came out, I told her my problem and -- glory of all glories -- she already had my ATM card in her hand!! Lucky me. After a quick inspection of my passport, she handed it over, and I was on my merry way. 

Lesson learned? I dunno :-)

What I Really Miss About Being in the US ...

... is the ability to sing in the car.

Ya just can't do that in the backseat of a cab or on the subway or walking down the street.

Maybe that's why karaoke is so popular in Shanghai?

Pictures from Zhuji/Wuxie and Shaoxing are up. Some heavy nature photography in the Wuxie set!!

Re-Entry

My cousin Mike is filming a documentary about Richard Garriott, the bazillionaire creator of Ultima and other PC / video games, who lives in Austin and is going to be the next private citizen launched into space. So it was with great interest that I read a feature story in the latest issue of Wired that followed Garriott around the training facilities in Russia. Particularly of interest was this bit from the author:

[N]o amount of camaraderie and training can prepare [Nik] Halik and Garriott for the worst part of the journey, worse than the grueling training, worse than the punishing gs of takeoff, worse than the indignities of space bathrooms. "The hardest part of the trip was coming back," [Anousheh] Ansari says. "You realize that you may never experience this again." It's difficult to readjust to life on Earth, to go from being a temporary cosmonaut to being a normal civilian. [Gregory] Olsen is known to wear his old Star City jumpsuit to schools and youth groups, happy for the opportunity to recount the story of the greatest moments of his life.

Yeah, it should be obvious why I posted this. I'm not in space, but to the Ryan of a year ago, Shanghai might as well be. During my two weeks in the US, I could feel myself wanting to talk about China and Shanghai, to speak Chinese, and to express a disquieted sense of how familiar everything was there, to kind of somehow let people know that I'd spent half a year living this insanely different experience. 

When I was in the US, it was great, but it was just really freaking weird that nothing was freaking weird. And I kept wanting to tell people that. Does that make sense? It wasn't bad. It was just ... well, yeah. Weird.

I wonder how it'll be when I go back for good in January.